unpeeled

i ran across the field    after class
laid down         a banana peel           on the grass
said      i bet     it isn’t even that           slippery
to my friend    who laughed when
i slipped

the bed            of grass           cut against
my upper thighs          unpeeled
a soft layer       of skin

i laughed
when he first touched              the site             of the bruise
gone by then                didn’t hurt but
i still felt it
                        the back seat cut          into the back
            somehow         i slipped into his         wet dream
implication of a body              slipping inside
                                                                        the car door

i liked
i think
i liked              when he left
the car
                        reeking
of rotted orange
i drove home               with the windows
down               by the high school

i walked barefoot        on the turf
            black beads of plastic              to my heels
when i came                home i still felt            pieces
slip                  inside
my white
            socks

i wore              again               when he fucked           against
his bedroom wall
i slipped                       the side door               when his mom

into the driveway

i pulled
every time he tried      to grip the sides of
          my throat         in public          he laughed
as if     we were children                     playing
his favorite                  tag

            it is slippery, i thought                       he slid             my body
            against the grass         one night         it is so, so slippery      so
i laughed
i laughed
i laughed i

Alli Cruz is a Filipino-Cuban American poet studying English & Creative Writing at Stanford University. Alli is a Levinthal scholar and a poetry reader for Pleiades. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in F(r)iction and The Louisville Review. Currently, she is the Literary Manager for Stanford Asian American Theatre Project.